The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - What To Expect For UVA Graduation Weekend; How Will Grads & Family Respond To Jim Ryan?

Episode Date: May 17, 2024

The I Love CVille Show headlines: What To Expect For UVA Graduation Weekend How Will Grads & Family Respond To Jim Ryan? UVA Class Of 2024: A Look At The Numbers Deal Flow: Brightspeed Building For Sale Deal Details: $15M Ask, 1+ Acre, 86,150 SQF Seniors Leave Retirement To Lifeguard At YMCA New Hoops Coach: CHS Hires Former Duke Star The I Love CVille Show: This Week’s Highlights Read Viewer & Listener Comments Live On-Air The I Love CVille Show airs live Monday – Friday from 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm on The I Love CVille Network. Watch and listen to The I Love CVille Show on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, iTunes, Apple Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, Fountain, Amazon Music, Audible, Rumble and iLoveCVille.com.

Good Friday afternoon, guys. I'm Jerry Miller. Thank you kindly for joining us on the I Love Seville Show. It's great to connect with you on a graduation weekend here in Charlottesville, Virginia. We are less than two miles where graduation will take place. The festivities begin this afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and run through Monday here on grounds at UVA and around grounds as undergraduates and graduates alike have a three or four day experience that they will remember forever. A lot I want to cover on the program. I started in the pre-tease of the show talking about my time as the high school sports editor over at the Daily Progress. The exact title was the preps editor, and I also want to thank Otto Turkish Street Food for being a part of the show. If you're looking for some fantastic food, Otto Turkish Street Food on Water Street, made fresh every day. The owners are local,

priced reasonably. There's a parking lot right across the street from it, the metered lot, auto Turkish street food is absolutely banging. I am in my early mid-20s, first job out of the University of Virginia. I start as a rising third year at the Daily Progress working for Jerry Ratcliffe, the star of the Jerry and Jerry Show. That's why it's so full circle sitting across from Hootie doing a show with him. I went into the newsroom as a 20 year old looking for a job. And he read some of the stories, some of the essays I had written for a creative writing class at the University of Virginia. And he gave me a chance. And he said, you're going to start as a part-time writer. And a part-time writer at a newspaper is known as a

stringer or a correspondent. I was paid $30 per story plus mileage. I proceeded to work my absolute tail off. I was working and writing stories for the newspaper, really out of necessity because I was broke and paying my way through school. And while bartending at Ruby Tuesdays and busing tables at Ruby Tuesdays and hosting at Ruby Tuesdays and waiting tables at Ruby Tuesdays in Barracks Road, that is now the location where Chopped Salad is located. So I had two jobs.

I was front of the house at Ruby Tuesdays and writing newspaper articles for Jerry Ratcliffe in the sports section of the Daily Progress. I was writing five to eight stories a week to try to make the most out of my $30 per story payment I was receiving. I parlayed that stringer job, that part-time job, into a staff writer position. The lowest men on the totem pole were the stringers. The lowest men and women were the stringers. Then right below that was the job I got, right above that, excuse me, was the job I got, the staff writer job. The staff writer job shockingly paid less than working as a stringer, but it did come with vacation and benefits like health care and matching 401k. The matching 401k at the time, I think, was 3.5%. Media General was the owner of the Daily Progress and managed the 401k.

It was absolute dog do from a benefit standpoint. But hey, it was something. More than I was getting then as a part-timer. So as a staff writer, I continue busting my tail over at the newspaper seven, eight stories a staff writer, I continue busting my tail over at the newspaper, seven, eight stories a week minimum. And then you have to do as a staff writer, a lot of the design and editing that stringers did not have to do. So you work longer hours for less pay. Um, but you did it because you were trying to, you know, cut your teeth and get into an industry,

an industry. I knew it was dying at the time, but still I was passionate about it. After a year and a half or so of being the lowest man on the totem pole as a staff writer, I got a promotion after Chris Wright. Christopher Wright is the girls basketball coach at Western Admiral High School. He is now the owner of the UVA website, the Sabre, the Sabre.com. Chris Wright was the high school sports editor. I replaced Chris Wright when he left as high school sports editor to run The Sabre and be the managing editor of that website, which he now owns. So as I get into the new position as the preps editor of the newspaper.

I was always told by Chris Wright and Jerry Ratcliffe, and the managing editor at the time I took this job, I think, was Lou Hatter. And he was the managing editor of the newspaper. He's now a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Transportation, VDOT. And then from Lou Hatter, it transitioned to McGregor McCants, who was previously the editor of the business section of the Roanoke Times. He came and became the managing editor of the Daily Progress. He now is working for the University of Virginia, McGregor McCants.

I see him from time to time playing squash at the board set, I believe with his daughter. But as I transitioned from staff writer into preps editor at the Daily Progress, I was told by everyone around me the significance of the role. And what they highlighted was the responsibility of being the preps editor or the high school sports editor. You had to send the stringers or the correspondence out and determine by looking at the daily schedule what games that they should cover from a high school sports standpoint. You determine what schools got covered, high schools and private, public and private. You determine what sports got covered. You determine what players got attention, what coaches got attention. You manage the stringers. The stringers were often the ones covering high school athletic events. And very importantly, you determine the all Central Virginia teams each season,

the staff, the daily progress, really the responsibility of the preps editor is to determine who are the best of the best from an athlete standpoint. A lot of responsibility. With a community like Charlottesville, which is small, a region like Central Virginia, which is about

300,000 people, the top reasons folks were reading the newspaper, sports and high school sports and UVA sports were always the top reasons. When the surveys went out, which of the sections that garnered the most interest are the web traffic, the traffic, the content that drives the most web traffic online. It's always UVA sports and always high school sports. Right below that were obituaries. People really wanted to know if they knew anyone that had died, and the way they would find that out were through the obits. So obituaries were often two.

Front page was three or four, three or the fourth slot, but it could never compete. The hard news could never compete with sports. The only place you could really get coverage of sports was at the newspaper at the time. That's changed slightly now. So I'm the preps editor.

I understand the responsibility. We get a story out. Part of being the preps editor is understand the responsibility we get a story out part of being the preps editor is you're putting the paper to bed putting the paper to bed at that time this was 2006, 2007, 2008 in that range

was literally looking at a computer screen doing the design, the layout making sure everything looks good on a computer screen and then sending everything from a computer to the printing press in the back of the Daily Progress, which was located on Rio Road. The printing press, the editorial staff, the sales staff, the managing editor, the publisher,

everyone worked under one roof at this time on Rio Road. And after we sent the paper to the printers, and the printers I've highlighted previously were men in their 50s and 60s, a unionized, the only unionized position at the newspaper, men in their 50s and 60s that were working at this newspaper straight out of high school. So they go from 18, 19-year-olds straight out of high school to doing a trade. Managing a printing press is a skilled trade that they would do for decades, that they were doing for decades at this location on Rio Road. It's the only spot at the newspaper that had consistency with its labor, the printing press. The highest paid guys at the newspaper were the men printing the newspaper in

the back and the press room. So on this one night, it was a weeknight in Charlottesville on Rio Road, our deadline was midnight for getting the paper to the print, to the press. I think we hit deadline by, we would always hit deadline, but only with like a minute or two to spare. Then our job was to go into my job, to the printing press, and wait for the first copy, or I try to always get the first copy, the first copy to come out of the press. And that first copy, the second copy, they're very important. They're important for the guys running the press because they want to make sure everything is lined up correctly and the ink and the pictures and everything that shows up on the print aspect of the newspaper is lined up.

The first few copies are always messed up, and then the guys that are working the press have to adjust everything on the press to make sure things fit on the page better or the color does not bleed or it's the right hue of color or the headlines are right where they're supposed to be. So we were always fighting for the first copy. The press guys were fighting for the first copy because they had to make sure that the newspaper passed their eye test. I was fighting for the first copy because I had to make sure

that there were no glaring mistakes with words in the newspaper, misspellings, something that shouldn't be in there. So we're fighting for this first copy, the press guys and me, 50 and 60 year old men and me, I think it was like 25 at the time, 24, 25 at the time. And I grab either the first or second copy. Then I take it to my cubicle outside the press. I take it to my workstation and I start reading A1. First, I start with my section, the sports section. And then I start reading the other sections. And there was an error. It wasn't in the sports section, thank God. I still knock on wood right now. But there was an error on a headline in the A section. I think it was A2. And it was a glaring error. You only stop the presses if there were errors on major headlines, subdecks, which are the headlines right below the major ones, or cut lines, which are the lines of copy below a photo that describes what a photo is about.

And there was an air in an actual headline. Actual headline. I caught it. I was the one who caught it. I sprint back to the press. Half a dozen men in their 50s and 60s, Frank, Gary, Mark, in their press uniforms, ink-stained hands, because they were already adjusting the newspaper. I scream at the top of my lungs, stop the presses, stop the presses.

And these guys look at me with the sharpest angry eyes you would ever have felt on you, as if you had just run over their grandma with an Oldsmobile. Because they knew their day, which was just getting started, was going to be delayed by probably 45 minutes to an hour. And these guys would get off work at like 4 in the morning, 4.30 in the morning, and then they would go to sleep. Now they're getting home 45 minutes, 50 minutes, even later. I screamed, stop the presses. I'll never forget what was going through my body. It was adrenaline. It was excitement. It was also fear and apprehension and anxiety,

but we had to do it. There was a headline error. We stopped the presses. We corrected the headline error. 45 minutes later or so, the presses are going again. The, I don't know, probably 100 copies, 150 copies were printed at that point. We're all compiled together and thrown away. They had to readjust everything with the press and they started the process all over again. Never will I forget that moment. And I guess I'll close with this before getting to today's headlines. Did you see them on screen? What really took me aback as I was leaving work that day, I ended up leaving at like 1.15, 1.20 in the morning. And as I was leaving at 1.15 or 1.20 in the morning from Rio Road, heading to Belmont, where I shared a two-bedroom bungalow with three buddies. It was a two-bedroom. The greenhouse was converted into a bedroom. And it was four buddies. One of my

buddies was actually living in the attic via a rope ladder that he would climb. So four of us in a two-bedroom house in Belmont. 208 Little Graves, I believe is the address. As I'm driving to Belmont, I realize this. A 24 or 25-year-old is the one responsible for the last look of a 300,000-person community's daily newspaper, the paper of record. Think about that. A 24 or 25 year old who was paid $25,000 a year was and is at this time responsible for what the newspaper looks like the next morning. A newspaper that was read by elected officials, business leaders, heads of nonprofits, commonwealth attorneys, police chiefs,

fire chiefs, high school coaches and athletes, their parents, their neighbors, their families and whoever was highlighted in the paper that given day it was a tremendous amount of responsibility for a community that at that time in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 was relying on a print product for its news the TV stations, the radio stations, read the newspaper and used that as the base for what they reported on television and radio. There

really wasn't significant internet traffic then. Not like there is now. The news originated in a print product. I'll never forget that. All right, let's weave Judah Wickauer in on a two-shot. You were talking about the changes to Twitter. We're talking about news. 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, news originated in print. Now news originates online, and there's no place that news originates perhaps more than on Twitter itself. Now X, Elon Musk, passion project. I've seen the changes. I love your vantage point, your bird's eye view of what's happening.

I mean, I was surprised. It's not like you didn't have the money to spend on it, but you know, getting x.com was not cheap. I don't know the actual cost, but anybody that's gone looking for URLs, for domains, the one, two, three, four-letter domains are gone.

I mean, you know, try to find john.com or, you know. And if you want to get one of those domains, I'm sure it costs an arm and a leg. But I was just, I was flabbergasted when I saw that Twitter had finally made the change to X.com. It's crazy.

It's crazy. Would you say it's worsened or strengthened since he's purchased it? I guess that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and whether or not you like Elon Musk and his politics and what he stands for in a lot of ways. Has it even changed? I don't use it enough to really notice a change. It seems pretty much the same to me, aside from the usual odds and ends

that come with any expanding business website slash social media conglomerate. Facebook is largely unchanged, but little things here and there. Same thing with Twitter and any of the other platforms. Remember when the far left in the community, socialists in the community,

the far left across the country, were going to boycott Twitter and go to these different third-rate social media platforms? I don't think it was just the far left. I mean... It was the folks that were vehemently opposed to what Elon Musk stood for.

Yeah, that's fair. That hasn't happened. That hasn't materialized. That threat did not manifest itself. There was what? Is it Mastrodon? Trump tried to create his own... Is that Truth Social?

Yeah. That's flopped. Yeah. All right, my friend, the first headline as you put the lower thirds on screen. Set the table for us, the viewers and listeners, what the first one is, please. Let's see.

What to expect for UVA graduation? I mean... Normally, we would answer this question by saying this. I expect traffic. I expect 25,000 additional people, if not more. I mean, you figure there's, what,

20, let's say, undergrads and graduates that are, you know, I'll say 20,000 additional people, if not more. 25,000 additional people, if not more, 25,000 additional people, if not more, are coming to Charlottesville for a long weekend. I would normally expect don't visit the corner, stay away from graduation.

As locals, there's this clear dichotomy between gown and town. The folks that are wearing the gown and their families and the folks that live in the town. Yeah, I wouldn't go near the corner of anything this weekend. In 2024, you answer this question extremely differently. What to expect on UVA graduation weekend? You've got to wonder what actually is going to happen now.

The students who are just there to learn and graduate, they can't catch a break. I mean, they've got the possibility of professors not giving out final grades. They've got the potential for protests going on during the walk and all of the whatnot. They've got the potential. I mean, Jim Ryan is most likely going to speak at some point.

Who knows if there's going to be a contingent that, I don't know, booze him, tries to drown him out. I would imagine Jim Ryan's getting booed this weekend. You know, who knows?

You don't think so? I don't know, but there's definitely potential for it. And then you've got the fact that there's a major flood warning for the weekend. I mean, these poor kids. And as we've mentioned before, these are the same students who had a what? Who had COVID, their graduation cut by COVID. Yeah.

Destroyed by COVID. You think Jim Ryan gets booed this weekend? I wouldn't be surprised if there was a contingent that tries to mar anything he has to say. Today, during valedictory exercises, and that's 3.30 at the John Paul Jones Arena, so 3.30 today, Ryan Zimmerman, maybe the most decorated UVA baseball alumni of all time, the former Washington Nationals legend, he's going to speak to the class

of 2024 during valedictory exercises. And then Jim Ryan's going to speak, the university president. John Paul Jones Arena, 3.30 p.m. today. What's going through Ryan's mind right now, would you think? I mean, Ryan's got to have a race of emotions as he's putting his tie on, a tie that's probably orange and blue. He's probably going to wear a blue sports coat of some kind. Maybe it's a blue jacket, a blue suit. Maybe it's a blue blazer with gold buttons. Ryan's, when he looks at it himself in the mirror and he pushes that knot up to the top of his collar and make sure his collar and his top button are done nice, he's got to be himself in the mirror and he pushes that knot up to the top of his collar and make sure his collar and his top button are done nice he's got to be looking in the mirror and saying good god how is this going to go yeah i mean at the end of the day you you really only have to

answer to yourself and possibly your family and so uh if he you know if he's confident and content in the decisions he's made, he's going to go out there and give a good speech? At the end of the day, you only have to answer to yourself, I don't buy that. At the end of the day, his legacy, his legacy and how he will be remembered. And when you're the president of a university like UVA, your legacy long lives your body on the planet, far outlives. His legacy is going to be one that is going to be determined by, in part, today, And the next weeks to come. And the next months to come through summer. Part of his legacy has already been written.

And part of his legacy that's been written. Is going to be all the good. But certainly some of the bad and the ugly of the last couple weeks. And he has an opportunity to continue writing his legacy. And perhaps he continues writing his legacy today. With what he says at valedictory exercises as a keynote speaker. And perhaps he has an opportunity with this platform, maybe utilizing this platform as a mea culpa to apologize. He may utilize this platform to say I could have done things completely different. If you take a lesson from me, graduating class of 2024, realize that the use of the word I am sorry or utilizing tactics like personal reflection is something you need to do to be a successful person. And I'm going to personally reflect now

and say I should have done these things differently and I am sorry. Learn from me and my mistakes. He could utilize that platform to rewrite his legacy. Do I think he's going to do it? I don't think he's going to do it, but he has an opportunity to do it. That's fair, but legacy is different from being able to look at yourself at the end of the day. I don't. See, I will agree to disagree on this one. Maybe for some people it's different. When you look at yourself in the mirror, you don't consider a legacy your personal legacy? Have you ever considered a personal legacy?

Does any viewer and listener that watched the program consider the significance of a legacy? I do all the time. Of course you do. You don't? Not like you do. Look, if somebody accuses me of something and I know that I'm innocent, then at the end of the day, whatever happens, I've got to know that I did or am doing what I want to be doing. That at the end of the day,

what someone else thinks doesn't matter. I mean, think about people that have been wrongly accused of crimes. Do they sit and dwell on what their legacy is every day? No, at the end of the day, they've just got to be like, look. I don't think that's actually the case. I don't think that's actually the case.

I think if someone who's wrongfully accused of a crime, they think about that and it eats them away. Ryan was honest. A guy who is likable and approachable and kind and empathetic and has the gift of human connection and wears his heart on his sleeves and all shucks kind of guy who rolls his sleeves up and has his tie at half mass and his top button undone that wants to be liked. Ryan wants to be liked. I think this is burning him up.

And I would bet if we asked him, and if he was true and honest, he would say he's had a ton of sleepless nights in the last 13 days. That's fair. A ton of sleepless nights. Curious if he utilizes today at valedictory exercises at 3.30 p.m. at the John Paul Jones Arena as a mea culpa. Time will tell. I will also say this as we get off this top and go to the next one. As you're rotating lower thirds on screen. This graduating class of 2024 is the same graduating class that had their high school graduation cut because of COVID. This graduating class has seen four years of college interrupted by the pandemic.

They saw their high school graduation eliminated. They saw part of college done virtually at home the first years. They saw college parties cut because you couldn't be on campus partying at the beginning of COVID. This is a class that's entering the workforce that some will be jaded, some will be bitter. This is a class that without question has been immersed by screens and social media, dating apps. This is a graduating class that could be a disruptive one when it comes to society. A graduating class that's entering the workforce at the highest levels of credit card debt in

American history, a graduating class that's entering the workforce where wages don't match up with cost of living, a graduating class that's entering the workforce where we have the highest cost of housing in American history, a graduating class that's entering the workforce where student debt and the repayment of loans is back in action after a reprieve for a while tied to the pandemic, a graduating class that's entering the workforce that's going to have to navigate groceries and gasoline that are all-time high levels and a labor market that's pretty darn tough. later today I'm going to have the pleasure the pleasure of interacting with some of this graduating class and one of the guys I'm going to have the pleasure of interacting with is a 22 year old that's moving to Manhattan in a couple of weeks

I've gotten to know this young man and I've mentioned to him, what are your plans? He goes, you know what? I'm moving to Manhattan. I don't have a job. Some of my friends are moving to Manhattan and I'm going to follow them there because right now I don't know what to do and I don't want to live with my parents. So he's going to move to Manhattan without a job. And I respect his sense of manifest destiny. I respect his, let me do the gold rush, or let me travel across the country to find my proverbial plot of land to build my future. And his gold rush, his manifest destiny is going to lead him from four years of college to the Big Apple. I respect that. But can you imagine in 2024,

pursuing a job right now where the cost of living is the highest it's ever been? Student loan debt is the highest it's ever been. Credit card debt is the highest it's ever been. Groceries and gasoline, basically the highest it's ever been. And jobs are far from plentiful. A young man who had his high school graduation eliminated because of COVID saw the first year and a half of his college experience eliminated because of COVID

and now is going to spend his graduation weekend wondering, and he told me he's wondering, if protesters are going to impact something he's been looking forward to his entire life. How can you not be jaded or bitter? And that's it in a snapshot. A lot we'll talk about on Monday. I got some numbers. I'm a stats guy. Here's the class of 2024 by the numbers, if you want to put the lower thirds on screen. 7,616 degrees, college degrees, will be awarded this weekend. We'll see how many will be held in purgatory by professors

unwilling to issue grades. We'll know that next week. 4,394, the total394 baccalaureate degrees were earned in three years. Ten students earned their degree in two years or fewer. This is on the UVA media website. You can find this out online, news.virginia.edu. UVA will award 443 first professional degrees 220 of them Juris Doctor and 144 Doctor of Medicine There's more than 1,000 first generation students graduate and undergraduate combined earning degrees Props to the 1,000 first generation students getting degrees this weekend

No doubt 10 degrees earned in two years or less Absolutely amazing First generation students getting degrees this weekend. No doubt. Ten degrees earned in two years or less. Absolutely amazing. The youngest graduate, there are six of them, 19 years old. There was a stark contrast between me at 19 and me at 22. And there was a huge contrast with me at 22 and me at 26. And there was an even larger contrast with me at 26 and me at 36 and me at 36. And where I am right now is a father of two and is a married man. If my son says to me, dad, and he's our oldest is six years old. We have one

who's 18 years, 18 months old, a six-year-old and 18 month old. And our six-year-old who's doing field day right now at school, there's a couple of days left before his kindergarten graduation on Wednesday. If he comes to me and says one time, and he's now saying, Dad, you know, I think this girl is really pretty. Kindergarten, he's coming to me and goes, Dad, you know what, I really think this girl is really pretty. Kindergarten, he's coming to me and goes, dad, you know what? I really think this girl is really pretty. She's in my reading group. I think she's really pretty. I said, that's great, son. That's great. You should tell her. You should tell her what you think. He goes, no, I can't do that. I'm not going to tell her that.

She doesn't want to hear that. I was like, why wouldn't she want to hear that? Who doesn't want to hear compliments of themselves? Go tell her. He goes, no, I'm not going to do that. My son comes up to me and says one day, Dad, I think I've met the love of my life. At 22 years old,

19 years old. Six students are graduating at 19 this weekend. My son's 19 who's graduating or 22 and graduating. He says, this girl, I think she's the love of my life. I would caution him.

I would say, son, your father and many others are very different people at 19, at 22, at 26, at 30, at 36, at 40. And the older you get, the more you find your true self. And you don't know who you're supposed to be within life as a partner

until you know yourself first. That's not to say that high school sweethearts don't work out, or childhood sweethearts don't work out, or college sweethearts don't work out. Of course they work out. But any viewer and listener who's watching this program, who you were in high school and who you were in college, very different than who you are in your mid to late 20s or early 30s.

That's the kind of advice I would give him. A lot of unknown this weekend. It's going to make for a fantastic show on Monday as we get some clarity. All right, let's get to the deal flow headline, if you can put that on screen. Judah found this. Deep Throat's already offered some perspective. Deep Throat, the background color that you're offering here is fantastic. First, let me get the details out. You got a photo you can put on screen? Yeah, just a second. The Bright Speed building, guys, on West Main Street, it's a massive building. This is a massive building. 86,152 square feet.

Let me know when it's on screen. Let's see. 86,000 plus square feet. It's an office and data center owned and occupied by U.S. Internet Service Provider Bright Speed. It's up for sale with the sale lease back. 401 to 419 West Main Street in Charlottesville. Up for sale on an absolute triple net lease back basis. That means you sell the business. It's on screen. Look at the screen. It's this building. Look at the screen. It's this building. The asking price is $15 million, $14,980,000 to be exact. Whoever buys this building, Brightspeed is going to be the tenant of this building. It's a leaseback. You're buying it with Brightspeed as a tenant. I'm going to get

to Deep Throat's commentary on this in a matter of moments. This building sits on just over one acre. It's a two-story building, 86,150 square feet. The specifications of the data center have not been shared, but it includes 100% redundant generator power. The terms of the leaseback deal were not included in the sales brochure. The site was built in 1949 and expanded in 1971. According to the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, the facility is the former Virginia Telephone and Telegraph Building and was previously used by CenturyLink. Brightspeed was officially formed in October 2022 after Apollo Global Management acquired the broadband and telecom assets of Lumen Technologies. Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund, Mamadala Investment Company, is also an investor here. This is a serious position in the heart of Charlottesville on an entry corridor to the downtown mall in the University of Virginia.

This is smack dab in the middle of the instead pressured local government to send that capital improvement allocation to schools, Buford Middle, despite having contributions to this project, the West Main Streetscape Project, from UVA and from VDOT. City of Charlottesville turned its back on free money. This was going to be Heather Hill's legacy. Her time on city council. This was going to be one of the arrows in her quiver. I did this.

I led this charge. Kathy Galvin was adamant about this. Local activists pressured council out of this project and into school reconfiguration, despite VDOT and UVA willing to contribute a large portion of it. Now, let's get to Deep Throat's comments. Get his photo on screen, number one in the family. He says, Jerry and Judah, viewers and listeners,

I want to give you some background, some color on the Bright Speed building. Are you ready for this, Judah Wickhauer? Deep Throat says this. This is just a sale lease back opportunity. Not sure how long Bright Speed leases, but at least immediately, this is not a development or redevelopment situation.

I'm not sure who would want Bright Speed as a lease tenant. This is a seriously distressed credit-rated CCC, recently cut from B- to CCC rating. CCC rating is not standing on the cusp of default, but rather hanging from that by its fingernails. He's talking about a tenant that's in the cusp of being eviscerated. That's why they're selling. Yeah. But they don't want to leave.

You know what this reminds me of? Deep throat, this is perfect for you here. This makes me nostalgic of the CFA when CFA had the building on High Street, and CFA has this building on High Street, CFA since COVID has lost significant momentum. Less folks are pursuing their CFA certification or recognition. And because less folks are pursuing their CFA, CFA, the operation, the outfit, is suffering mightily.

And they took a building on High Street, the old Martha Jefferson Hospital, where they invested millions of dollars in, and they sold it for peanuts to a shell company, I believe owned by Koren Capshaw. I've heard scuttlebutt from many people. It's Koren that's got this low-high LLC that owns this building. Yeah

so CFA is in financial peril think about that a CFA is in financial peril They sell their assets. One of their key assets is this building, the old Martha Jefferson Hospital. For pennies on the dollar, opportunist and talented businessman, Cam Shaw, and through one of his subsidiaries, buys it, turns it into what it's about to become,

a co-working space, keeps CFA on part of the building as a tenant, because they needed to do a sale lease back. Makes me nostalgic of this with Brightspeed. Deep Throat says, sale-leaseback is what you do when you can't borrow unsecured anymore. Often the last refuge of a liquidity-constrained... SHIT bag credit.

Brightspeed is running... You almost got me there, Deep Throat. S-H-I-T bag credit. Bright Speed is running, you almost got me there, Deep Throat. Bright Speed is running annual free cash flow of over negative $1 billion. Ouch. This is a guy who works in finance, who's clearly making the program better today. Well done, Deep Throat.

Bill McChesney says, that building has a long list of telephone company names. Thank you, Bill McChesney, the mayor of McIntyre. Bill, I believe you've been in Charlottesville, is it since the 70s? Is that right? Vanessa Parkhill, McChesney's photo on screen. Vanessa Parkhill's photo on screen.

Some of our key members of our family, iloveseville.com forward slash viewer rankings to see where you stack. Vanessa Parkhill, the queen of Earliesville, really hopes Jim Ryan does not turn valedictory exercises into his personal platform. Today is not about him. The focus should be on the students, their work, and their accomplishments. I respect that, but he could utilize as his keynote, learn from my mistakes. To humanize, localize, and personalize himself,

which is key to building goodwill, human connection, and personal brand equity. Humanize, localize, and personalize yourself. This BrightSpeed deal, this BrightSpeed opportunity, I'll give a little bit more color on it before going to the next topic. An asking price of $14,982,956. The building was built in 1949. Interestingly, the building class is Class B.

I have not walked through the inside of the building, but from the outside of the building, I don't really see a Class B building. I see kind of an A-class building. The inside of the building may be a dump. 86,152 square feet, a price per square of $174. It's 100% leased. Each floor is roughly 28,717 square feet. 1.1 acres. This is over an acre on an entrance corridor,

ladies and gentlemen. I'm going to be 53 parking spaces, ladies and gentlemen, with this. 53 effing parking spaces. Do you hear me, people? I'll tell you right now why this building is active, why this building has not sold, why this building, most of the stuff that I do, every piece of real estate that I've bought, and I'm no genius, I just am well connected, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven positions outside of my house. Personal residents. Eleven others. Every single one has traded off market. Not a single piece that I purchased was on market when I bought it. It was done through conversation or scuttlebutt or, hey, you know, this is for sale. This guy's selling this. You interested? The only reason this has not is on the active market. You know why that is? Why do you think it is? You got this, Judah. You got this, Judah. The only reason why this is not on the

active... The only reason this is on an MLS or active, it's an actual listing. Because all the people that normally would have gotten to it in a pre-market deal said no. Why did they say no? Because they don't think it's worth it. No. One key reason. You got this. I know you got this. Because it comes with bright speed. Yeah, yeah. Because it's not worth it. Because it comes with a tenant

in place who we've highlighted through deep throats thorough analysis is what he called an SHIT bag company. What would it take to kick them out? They're under a lease. I know. You're inheriting the lease.

You have to run the course of the lease. That's another thing. I've been in that position. Even if they can't pay? I've been in that position. I bought three office condos from a UVA professor named Dr. John Foltz. He ran for elected office in the city of Charlottesville. Fantastic man, John Foltz. A seller finance deal.

John and his wife, Margaret, had a company called Marjan, M-A-R-J-O-H-N-L-L-C. And we did a seller finance deal on the three office condos I purchased. I think it was like a $435,000 deal with 7.5% down, financed over 10 years. I think the interest rate was 4%.

I've since paid it off. The units are free and clear. I, when I purchased these office of condos from Dr. Foltz, John Foltz, great guy, call him a friend, got to know him through this seller finance deal of making 86 payments before paying it off. 86 payments was seven years and change before having paid it off before the 10 year balloon. I would personally, either me or you would deliver the mortgage check to their house.

That's how old school they were. Not direct deposit. Before COVID, I was knocking on their door on the 17th of the month and giving them a mortgage check in person. After COVID, for some protection, because they were a little bit older, the check was dropped in their mailbox and followed up with a phone call to confirm receipt. You get to know people when you see them every month and you're giving them a $4,400 check every month for seven years plus. Here's your $4,400 check. When I made this acquisition, I inherited the leases. And the leases I inherited were Dr. Benegal Page, the dentist, a key member in the African-American community, one of the key pillars of the 100 black men of Charlottesville and Central Virginia,

as respected as a person as you're going to find, Dr. Benegal Page. I inherited, he was paying $1,250 a month for a dental office. It's way below market. I inherited the Ann Mischie law firm. Her law firm, I believe she was a divorce attorney. She was running one of the places. She was paying like $800 a month, way below market. And I inherited a film studio that was paying like $700 a month, and they never paid their rent on time. So when I made this acquisition, I bought, in a lot of ways, something that was distressed because the tenants were well below market in what they were paying. So a lot of folks passed on an opportunity.

For me, with the other businesses, we had the ability to float the monthly debt service because the other businesses in real estate were doing well. And I said, well, I'm going to wait out these leases for the upside. So someone could potentially do that with this Brightspeed building, but if the lease terms are not being released, John Shave, 100%, I'm going to get to your comment at 1,000%. I'm going to interrupt what I'm saying right now to relay what

John Shave, the owner of Pro Renata, just said. Real money is made on the buy. I want viewers and listeners to understand what John Shave is talking about. He owns Pro Renata. Thank you, Ray. Appreciate that. Have a good weekend, Ray. John Shave, the owner of Pro Renata, who just bought Skipping Rocks Assets. Not their brand, but their assets, their brewery equipment.

He's expanding into downtown Stanton through real estate development, and he's expanded into the Shandow Valley with the purchase of Skipping Rock, their assets. He said real money is made on the buy. What does he mean by that? I mean, you'd do a better job explaining it. I think it means that you find yourself an opportunity where somebody needs to sell and you can find favorable rates or contract. Real money is made on the buy. What he means by that is the terms you're able to negotiate to purchase something,

you should be very mindful of those terms because the price you pay from day one, the savings you can get from day one, the interest rate you secure from day one, the conditions that you secure from day one, reflect or influence or impact the entire deal. And if you are shrewd at negotiating in day one, and you get the terms that you want, it sets yourself the deal up for you in a favorable capacity for you to have success. The deal I was talking about

with the seller finance deal to buy the three office condos the rents have two and a half X since purchase time no debt two and a half X since purchase

and that increase in rents was bringing them to market, investing in them, and finding better tenants. Yeah. But in that particular deal, the securing of a 4% rate, the securing of a 10-year term

to give me runway, as opposed to a 5-year term, or a 7-year term, which is more standard. Amateurizing it over 10 as opposed to five and having the debt float and readjust and tied to prime and have it every 18 months readjust, that's real money is made on the buy. 100% agree with you, John. the buy is often taken for granted people see the back end payday and they're so quick to rush through a deal

that they, oh I'm seduced and romanticized by the back end they're not seeing the front end and the front end determines so much of the back end and how you figure that out how I figure that out, how I figured that out, is a school of hard knocks. I'll tell you right now, if Brightspeed,

if it wasn't a lease back and Brightspeed was not inherited, that building wouldn't even be on the market. That would be a core and capsule all day, every day, and twice on Sunday. That would be an Capshaw all day, every day, and twice on Sunday. That would be an Alan Kajin all day, every day, and twice on Sunday. Alan and Corrin, the late Gabe Silverman, they own a lot of that corridor.

That would have been an heirloom development. The company that has the building basically across the street, the Manhattan Development Company, a husband and wife who redeveloped Blue Moon Diner and the apartments above it. And are now going from apartment tower on the downtown mall where the livery stable is and converting it to a boutique hotel despite being in the shadows of the Omni. Who's been to the Omni Hotel recently? My wife and I went to the Omni Hotel. We were just strolling down the downtown mall, my wife and I, and we had our boys with us. We were just taking a walk on a Sunday morning, walked through the Omni Hotel. The $15 million renovation of the Omni Hotel looks amazing. Ladies and gentlemen, the Omni Hotel, the atrium and restaurant in particular,

the waiting area is unrecognizable for what it previously was. It is gorgeous. It is gorgeous, the $15 million renovation. Heirloom Development, this company I'm referencing that did the Blue Moon Diner redevelopment and the apartments that engulfed the Blue Moon Diner, they are thinking about building a hotel next to the Omni. This heirloom guy, this acquisition of the Brightspeed building would be perfect for him. It's literally across the street from the Blue Moon Diner project, and it's right down the road from his hotel. But no one wants a dog doo-doo tenant.

That's close to default. There's a building on the downtown mall that I'm interested in. I'm not going to say which one, but this building on the downtown mall, a lot of its value is tied to one tenant. One tenant determines a lot of this value for this building on the downtown mall.

And the risk you have with buying this building is said tenant gets in financial peril and can't pay its lease, can't pay its rent. And if said tenant can't pay its rent, what's the value of a building that is monopolized primarily by one tenant and a tenant that cannot pay its rent? Sounds like a headache. All right, it's 128. I have other items I've got to get out of the notebook. That's the deal flow and the deal details for the BrightSpeed. Commercials are Bailiwick?

Is it Bailiwick? Yeah, it's kind of like your... Bailiwick or Bailiwick? Bailiwick. It's our Bailiwick. Thank you. 53 parking spaces. Ladies and gentlemen, over an acre on West Main Street.

All right. A couple of things I want to get out of the notebook. You want to do the YMCA, the retirees at the YMCA? That's a good one. Sure. Do it in about 30 seconds. You set the stage and I'll set the stage on the other. Then I'll read viewer and listener comments.

I've got a couple of other items I need to get out of the notebook. Go. Well, I'm sure we've all heard that pools, Charlottesville pools, I'm sure this is happening across America. Stick to the facts, man. Nothing but the facts. Coming up short on lifeguards. And a lot of them are trying to figure out what days they can actually open with the lifeguards they have.

And so for a particular YMCA, they've made the decision to hire seniors. Is this locally? The Brooks Family YMCA. Yeah, that's local. That's the YMCA here, right off of McIntack. Okay, here's how I want to unpack this. The jobs that previously were going to teenagers, the YMCA is pivoting its model and filling lifeguard stands. The red swimsuits with the whistles twirling on the finger, no longer in the lifeguard

chair are they going to be held by bronzed and toned 18 and 19 year olds swinging the whistle in their red trunks or their tight red swimsuit you don't know that they won't be brought you're now going to have 72 73 74 75 year olds swinging the whistle with a little sag some gray hair bronze in their body that right there is a microcosm, a microcosm of so much in society. The teen today, jobs previously held by teenagers, that demographic is choosing to do other work instead. phones and influencer in social media as opposed to fast food, as opposed to front of the house, as opposed to bronzing their bods on lifeguard stands while swinging whistles and wearing red trunks. It's a microcosm of teens today. That's why that's a great topic. One other item out of the notebook, two other items out of the notebook. Andre Dawkins has been hired as the head boys basketball coach for Charlottesville

High School. Dawkins played college basketball at Duke. Then he played for the Miami Heat, the Boston Celtics, a bunch of G League teams, and overseas. He played college basketball at Duke, this guy, Andre Dawkins, played professional basketball in the NBA, and now is the head basketball coach at Charlottesville High School with the boys team. This is a significant hire by Charlottesville High School. They caught a lot of heat and were put under the scope by Kurt Johnson, the author. I'm going to celebrate Charlottesville High School today by highlighting that Andrew Dawkins, Andre Dawkins, was hired.

Incredible hire. We'll close the show with this. If you did not watch this week's programming, you missed some of the best programming we've had in I Love Seville Network history. We had Dr. John Shabe, the owner of Pro Renata, talk about his expansion plans with the acquisition of Skipping Rock. He's purchasing the assets of a brewery

that has some of the best brewing infrastructure known to mankind, and he's bought it for pennies on the dollar. Dr. John Shabe understands the real money is made on the buy, and pro-Renata is booming. And how could it not be with leadership like him? Tremendous respect for that man I have. We had on today's program a libertarian, no, excuse me,

this week's programming, a libertarian presidential candidate who's already reached out to me, said the feedback was so significant he wants to come back. Nice. What was his name? Mike Termott. Coming, Mike Termott looked to make a push for the Libertarian party and to create a true three-party system. He understands the uphill battle is significant, but he also understands that what he is doing right now is papering the record with his perspective which he sees as early stage to getting to a three-party system and i respect him for that yeah i just we we just had news of the two of the presidential candidates agreeing to a debate and my biggest disappointment is that I'm sure

they're not going to allow anyone else in. I mean, these two jokers are, it's bad enough that we have to listen to them put each other down back and forth. I would love to have someone substantive like Mike Tremont go and blow them out of the water. And on the show on Wednesday, we had... We had Kurt R. Johnson, author. His book?

Schooled, The Miseducation of an american teacher you're finishing the read as we speak yeah fantastic read you can find on amazon a large portion of that book is about a year in the classroom and in the hallways at charlottesville high school he was a teacher teaching the ninth grade at CHS, where he documented marijuana use on the regular, so potent that it could be smelled every day in the hallways and classrooms. He documented a year that was influenced by sex, drugs, and hallway brawling, by screen time, by profanity, by use of the N-word, physical violence,

and I think most notably, a lack of accountability and very little support from administration for teachers. Read this book. It is compelling. I am proud of the work we've done this week on this talk show. I am proud of the work we've done this week.

On this talk show. I am proud of that man, Judah Wickhauer. Sincerely mean that. Effing proud of you, dude. Fortunate to be sitting across from you right now. I sincerely mean that. We worked our ass off this week.

Thank you for joining us on the I Love Seville show. Monday show, get ready and giddy up. So long, everybody. Sincerely, me and that Jew. Thank you.